According to The Independent Institute, the California Board of Education will postpone until May of 2022 the schedule vote to implement changes to math instruction in the state. At the July board meeting, the state's education leaders were poised to adopt new math standards and curriculum which would stifle instruction, learning, and acceleration in "a step toward social justice and racial equity." This new plan for math instruction is apparently rooted in a one-size-fits-all rigid course of instruction which allows no acceleration or advanced instruction before the eleventh grade. And shockingly, it is alleged to "reject the ideas of natural talents and giftedness" and to oppose the "cult of genius."
As an honors and AP teacher and gifted education coordinator, I am baffled and disturbed by the belief that natural talents and giftedness don't exist and that educational advancement is simply a matter of privilege and even racism. Apparently, quite a few others agree, and hundreds of educators and academics have pushed back on the state of Californian in an open letter to the board and the governor, a letter which is believed to have influenced the decision to table a vote on the changes for one year.
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